Sandy licked his dry lips and heaved a longsigh.
"Look what you get, all for a sand fox. Atleast you've chosen a good spot. If you'd col-lapsed beneath the slope you'd have ended uplike your horse."
The old man flung his stick away, croucheddown and with his daughter helped the two menup. He carefully gave them water, and theygradually came to. Then he fed them parchedflour mixed with water.
They revived.
"Oh, it's you, old fellow. Thank you. "Beardy smiled wryly.
The secretary showed his sincere gratitudetoo.
What's the use of your gratitude? the oldman thought as he rose silently and tossed themthe clothes he had brought. "Put them on. It'sfreezing at night. You hunters will be frost-bit-ten
老沙頭歪過臉去，他實在不願多看他們的臉，他走開去，久久地凝望著沙漠深處，那裏更顯得朦朦朧朧，清冷而神秘，他的黑蒼的臉卜毫無表情。
“爸爸，我們該回去了，這死漠真怕人。”沙柳走過，輕輕碰了一下父親的胳膊。老沙頭點點頭。提過塑料桶，把水往小鐵壺裏倒滿一壺，然後把水桶遞給女兒。“孩子，你領著他們出死漠吧，一直往東走，直奔月亮升起的方向，天亮時就會走出去了。”
“那你呢，爸爸？”沙柳的心又提起來了。
“我去找找它……它還帶著小息子，沒有水，它們會渴死的。”他的眼睛始終沒離開那暮色沉沉的沙漠。
沙柳顫抖了一下，但沒有吱聲。半天，她問：“那座古城廢址還很遠嗎？”
“不知道。應該是不遠了，大概就在前邊
“老沙頭，你幹啥去？是去追那狐狸嗎？”大胡子在那邊隻言片語地聽到了父女倆的對話，插言道：“好，去吧，這該死的畜牲害得我們好
He moved away to look around. The sunhad set. He saw nothing in the dusk. Sure e-nough, the sand emitted a cold which floated up,spread and chilled the air. The old man coughedpainfully while his daughter pounded his backgently. Beardy and the secretary looked at him.
"Where is the fox you were after?" the oldman suddenly demanded.
The two men looked at each other speech-lessly.
"Well, where is it?" the old man boomed.They jumped as he looked at them with eyes likecold knives.
"We didn't get it. Honestly. It ran fasterthan a horse in the desert. And then we got lostin the storm," Beardy explained awkwardly.
The old man turned away, not wanting tolook at their faces any longer. He moved a fewsteps further and gazed for a long time into thehazy, mysterious distance, his swarthy face ex-pressionless.
"Let's go home, dad. It's scary here. " Shewalked up and touched his elbow softly. He nod-ded, took the bucket, filled his water bottle andreturned the bucket to her, saying, " You get苦！”大胡子拍了拍手中的獵槍。那位秘書早把獵槍不知丟哪兒去了。他還完整無損地帶在身邊。
老沙頭嘴角掛出一絲苦澀的笑紋，搖了搖頭。這時刻，他不想理解什麼。一生以獵取動物為樂趣的大胡子，能理解他對沙孤的感情嗎？他轉向女兒：“孩子，你們走吧。走過那匹死馬時，多割下一些肉來，你們的幹糧不夠吃。”